Adams: Engineering at UGA will meet a real need

Posted: Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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I stood on the steps of the University of Georgia Chapel more than 13 years ago as a newly appointed president and told the audience that I knew the difference between a first-rate liberal arts college and a first-rate research university. It had struck me in the briefing books and the Web material that I read about UGA that our portfolio of offerings omitted broad-scope international programs, public health programs, medical research and engineering research.

The University of Georgia has a rich and proud heritage of competing well nationally in many areas. But over the past two decades, federal research grants have moved increasingly toward science, medicine and engineering. While UGA has a strong, effective base in the sciences, the absence of a full-scale medical school or engineering college has become a detriment. Last year, fully half of the total annual federal research and development expenditures at all academic institutions went to either medical- or engineering-related research. There are both national and state-level efforts to improve education in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas. The United States has fallen increasingly behind China and India in producing students willing to major in STEM areas; today, about 20 percent of UGA undergraduates do.

For some two years now, this administration has worked hard with the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and its staff to more fully address this issue. It is why we have invested, with the governor's help, in the partnership with the Medical College of Georgia - including the commitment of several millions of dollars to obtain the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School property - to educate physicians in Athens. The result is what may prove to be the biggest economic advantage and advancement for the Athens region in a century.

The other part of this equation obviously is engineering. This initiative to add three key engineering majors at UGA has been approved by the faculty, approved by the University Council, and has been before the regents for almost two years. Expanded engineering offerings in the state have been recommended by the regents chair, who has studied this issue for two years. The proposal also recently was endorsed by the University System's chancellor. Both the chair and the chancellor are engineers - and one is a Georgia Tech graduate.

There is virtually unanimous agreement that the state needs more engineers to do the important work of keeping the state's economy going - building roads and bridges, managing power grids, operating factories. But when the University of Georgia, in the land grant tradition, proposes a plan to meet that need, we are met with accusations and objections.

Of all the issues and all the groups I thought we would have to fight in this battle - including the dreaded Yellow Jackets - I never for a moment thought the local newspaper would side with them. In a region that desperately needs new jobs and enhanced economic activity, it strikes me as amazingly short-sighted that one of the area's leading voices would say no to such an extraordinary opportunity.

Thankfully, the Board of Regents showed more foresight and commitment to the future than did the newspaper. As much as any region in the state, Athens-Clarke County needs more economic development and more jobs. That's exactly what medicine and engineering can help provide.